Metroid: Primal
by T'Reilani
Summary: Suddenly, the bone-crushing darkness surrounded me, and one command took over my mind. KILL.
1. Chapter 1: Selani Alpha1

My first Metroid story, so please go easy on me! Rather obviously, I don't own Samus Aran or the games, although I did invent Selani Alpha-1. Reviews would be loved!

**WARNING: This story is rated M for a reason. Creepy violence and LOTS of swearing. This chapter is mild, but the next ones will be intense. You've been warned. **

_**Metroid: Primal **_

**Chapter 1: Selani Alpha-1**

I brushed a strand of hair out of my eyes – _damn, I really need to cut that short again _– as I took one last look around my small quarters to make sure everything was in place. Holopad off – check. Spare clothes put away – check. Every piece of my suit on except my helmet – check.

Satisfied, I flipped my ponytail up and clamped my helmet down, hearing the familiar hiss of my suit pressurizing. Just in time; the cabin sensor beeped and an automated message – in the overly pleasant female voice I'd nicknamed Katie – came on.

**Reaching selected autopilot coordinates. Please revert to manual control or enter a new set of coordinates. **

"Sure thing, Katie," I quipped, starting for the cockpit. _When did I start talking to the automated voice? _

The planet Selani Alpha-1, my target destination, filled the viewscreen as I settled into the pilot's seat. Scans weren't showing anything out of the ordinary; it was a habitable planet, but with no indigenous population. No immediate sign of the exploration crew that had sent out the distress signal, either.

I set the controls to manual and took the steering yoke. _No issues here…just glide down through the atmosphere and set down on a nice flat place. _I tried not to think about the fact that on these unknown planets, it's rarely that easy.

Sure enough, as I dropped through the cloud cover, my ship jolted, red lights started flashing, and an alarm blared. "What the hell?" I looked at the readout to see that my rear stabilizers and left engine were both _gone._ Not damaged; literally gone. Like they had just…dematerialized.

I didn't have much time to think about it. My ship was completely out of control, spiraling wildly through the clouds. Something smashed into the bottom of the ship, throwing me against the control console and then to the floor.

**Warning: Ship has taken heavy damage. Depressurization in two minutes. Please evacuate immediately.**

I rolled over and grabbed the edge of the console, trying to pull myself upright. A bit difficult, since the ship wasn't really _upright_ by any definition of the word. "Shut up, Katie!"

My head hit the bottom of the pilot's seat as the ship rolled completely over. _Damn it, damn it, damn it…_

The ship jolted again, and I saw the entire upper panel _disintegrate_. Tingling spread through my entire body, and the magnetic field holding me to the floor deactivated as something on the console snapped off. I free-fell through the gaping hole; the last thing I saw was the control console exploding in a cloud of white light before my head smashed into something solid and everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2: Graveyard

**Thanks for the review, WingedFox! Glad you liked it!**

**Chapter 2: Graveyard**

I woke up lying crumpled against the base of an unfamiliar plant, my head throbbing like all hell and my right arm twisted awkwardly under me. Warnings popped up rapidly in my HUD. **Gravity suit offline. Space jump boots offline. Enviro-shielding offline. Morph suit offline…**

"Shit," I swore, my head aching worse than ever. "Is anything _online_?"

**Scan visor functional. Power beam functional. Suit pressure stable.**

"Okay. Okay. Think, Samus." I shoved myself into a sitting position, wincing as circulation returned to my arm and pain shot from my head all the way down my neck. I swallowed back the urge to gag; vomiting in a sealed suit wouldn't be pleasant. Judging from the symptoms, I probably had a concussion…_that_, at least, was going to cause issues if I didn't do something. "The ship. Find the ship, or what's left of it."

_If there's anything left,_ a nagging voice whispered in the back of my brain.

"Shut up, you," I told myself sternly. "There'll be something left. It's a damn tough old thing."

It took almost ten minutes and a _lot _of cussing at myself, at whatever shot me down, and at the planet in general to actually get on my feet. Turns out concussions also make balancing in a heavy suit a real trick. _Dammit. Double dammit. I can't _wait_ for the rest of the day. _

I waited for my HUD to reorient and give me directions, which it did after a moment's delay. My ship's signal was coming from the southwest, about a mile from my position. _Well, there's a signal. That means there's _something _left of it._

Walking wasn't any easier than getting up, but I managed to get the hang of it again after a few minutes. My breathing rasped heavily inside my suit, and I wondered if it was safe to take off the helmet. _No, better not. No way to tell if the atmosphere is safe anymore._

My HUD flashed a red warning. **Danger level rising. **_Oh, great. Now what?_ I couldn't see anything except a dark mist among the plants that rose over my head, and I couldn't scan it.

The instant I stepped into the mist, cold fear gripped my insides, in a way I hadn't felt since I was a small child. I took a slow breath, _in, out_, and forced myself to keep walking. _It's just a side effect of the concussion. It's just my mind playing tricks. Everything is fine. _But the danger monitor continued to rise as the mist thickened, even though I wasn't taking any damage. Something was wrong…

And then my foot caught on something, and I tripped, tumbling head-over-boots down a short slope and coming to an abrupt stop against something that yielded to my body weight. My visor cleared to show me clouded, terrified, and distinctly humanoid eyes.

I had landed against a body.

The fear returned, worsening this time, as I struggled upright and backed away, only to stumble on another body. The mist cleared just a bit and I saw more, and more. Some humanoid, some felinoid, some completely unfamiliar, and one that even looked Chozo. All brutally killed, most so mutilated that no one would ever identify them again. Crushing down the rising terror, I scanned the human I had fallen against.

**Corpse is a human male, name and planet of origin unknown. Cause of death: blunt force trauma to head and torso. Marks indicate corpse may have been partially eaten after death.**

Then one of them, a humanoid impaled roughly on a spiked plant, slid free and rolled toward me, and the terror could not be stopped. I bolted, running out of the hellish graveyard back the way I had come, and not stopping until I was clear of the mist and completely out of breath.

I crumpled to my knees, fear dissipating as quickly as it had come, and realized my energy tank levels had taken a significant drop since the last check. I had just taken quite a bit of damage, without ever encountering an enemy.


	3. Chapter 3: Bloodbath

**A/N: **This chapter is the reason this fic warranted an "M" rating, people. Lots of swearing and really bloody violence.

**Chapter 3: Bloodbath**

Another eerie wail echoed through the darkness, causing me to shiver inside my makeshift shelter. Two slanted rocks against a cliff side made a decent cover, and my suit protected me from Selani's cold nights. I doubted I would be able to sleep and let the energy tank recharge, though. The screeching and wailing had started as soon as the sun was fully down, and showed no sign of stopping. _Probably an indigenous predator pack,_ I reasoned, but it didn't make me any more confident that I was safe. Ever since my encounter with the strange graveyard earlier, I had had a distinct feeling that my fear, odd as it was, had been justified.

"What the hell, Samus?" I muttered to myself. "You can take _anything_ on. Damn, you're part Chozo! You've survived everything every hell-spawned planet has to throw at you, from metroids to war wasps. So what's with the panic attacks?"

Yet another wail pierced the air, closer this time. I sighed. No sleep for me, that much I was sure of. I couldn't even identify what the cries were; to me, they sounded vaguely human, but that probably had to do with my mindset. _Ugh. I should just – _

I almost hit my head on the rocks when a screech came from directly above me. The creature was probably right on the cliff…

Then I heard the screaming. Human, male, and terrified.

No matter how afraid I was – because the fear had returned at that scream – I knew what I had to do. I ducked clear of the rocks, charging my power beam as I ran toward the sounds. The screams had redoubled, mixing with the screeching from the creatures.

I found a narrow trail just a few yards from my shelter, and sprinted up it, trying to get my X-Ray visor to cooperate so I could see what I was up against. It blurred, flickered, and then revealed three shapes on a small plateau about eighty feet above me before going dark. Even that brief glimpse had told me there were two of the attackers and only one victim.

_Maybe two, if you run in there,_ that traitorous fear whispered. "No!" I yelled, jumping the last ten feet onto the plateau. _I will not be a victim! I AM NOT PREY! _

One of the creatures yowled as it turned toward me, and I got my first clear glimpse of it. My heart nearly stopped in shock.

A humanoid woman. Or what was left of one. Her blue hair was tangled with leaves and dirt, she was skinny and scarred, and what had once been a flightsuit was almost nonexistent. Yellow eyes glowed with a feral hate. And her mouth…her teeth and lips were stained with fresh red blood, as were her long fingernails. The blood of the man now screaming as the other being tore into him.

_Shit._

I spun sideways and almost fell as the woman lunged toward me, releasing the terrible screech I had heard so often. Her hand grabbed my arm and jerked, slamming me against the wall. I crumpled to the ground, head spinning. Damn it, how strong _was_ she? I might be small, but even without the suit I was no lightweight. In it, she shouldn't have been able to make me shift an inch, let alone throw me around like a doll!

Before I could pick myself up, she pounced, clawing at my helmet as her teeth went for my shoulder. I kicked her hard in the midriff, knocking her off, and jumped upright, bracing for her next assault even as I struggled to understand. _What is she? She's sentient, or should be! No humanoid is this brutal!_ Then she was on top of me again, clawing at my armor, screeching so loudly my helmet shut down its audio unit. I grabbed her arm and yanked her off my back, spinning to fire at point-blank range.

Her claws locked around the gun, and a second later I was yelping in pain as she crushed my weapon arm, leaving the gun useless.

**Power beam offline.**

"NO!" I screamed, punching my attacker until her head snapped back and she crashed onto her back and then rolled. One final screech and she was falling down the cliff. Even from this distance I could hear her spine snap as she hit the ground. I turned and ran toward the other and its prey.

The other – a male – raised his head and snarled, pulling himself to his full height. I gasped. _Damn, he's not even the same species! That's a Goran! _Or, again, what was left…his ridged green skin was covered in scars, like the woman's, and he was streaked with the blood of his victim.

I raised my fists, pushing down the terror. I noticed, dimly, that the attacked man had stopped screaming. Probably dead.

"Come on, you bastard freak; you want a piece of me?" I taunted, trying not to show any fear. Maybe, if he was as much like a wild animal as he seemed, he would run…

No such luck. A second later, I was pinned on my back, warnings flashing as he ripped at my suit. _He's even stronger! How the hell is this possible?_ I tore one arm free and delivered a hard throat chop, briefly stunning him. In that second, I managed to roll out from under him – only for him to clamp his hands around my throat, lift me off the ground, and squeeze.

Fighting for breath, I kicked at his groin, drawing a grunt and a slight release of pressure. With a desperate twist, I freed my neck and kicked his knees – a Goran's weak point, if I remembered correctly – as hard as I could. He stumbled backward and followed the woman on an unplanned flight down the cliff.

Rubbing my throat and gasping, I dropped to my knees next to the bloody mess that had once been a human male. "Hey…hey! Can you hear me?" I smothered the urge to vomit at the sight of exposed tendons and even bones on his chest and neck. _What…how…_I touched his shoulder cautiously. My glove came away coated in the blood that was spurting from his jugular vein. His eyes were still open, but already clouding. If he wasn't dead, he would bleed out soon.

Then what was left of his lips twitched, and I realized he was trying to speak. "What is it?"

"…p…l…ea….s…e…." Blood spilled down under his head from his gouged cheeks and mouth. "…dy…in…g…e…nd… "

I understood what he wanted. My throat tightened at the thought, but I forced a nod. "Yes. It will be over soon." He was bleeding so much, this wouldn't be hard. I found a razor-sharp shard of rock a few feet away, and a single firm thrust, he was dead.

Ignoring the blood that covered my legs and arms, I carefully closed his eyes – brown, I noted with some part of my mind. Had he had family? A wife, children, parents, siblings? Someone who would wait forever in vain.

"Rest now," I told him softly, before turning to look over the cliff's edge. The creatures' bodies were invisible, but I knew they were down there.

_What in the entire damn galaxy happened here? _


	4. Chapter 4: Trapped

**Yes. I know. My update time is absolutely terrible. I'm sorry. **

**Chapter 4: Trapped **

I spent the rest of the night on the ledge, dozing off occasionally and waking up at every noise. When a dim gray light indicated that it was morning, I was tired, sore, and pissed at the galaxy in general. _Screw this planet. Screw whatever bonehead sent me here. And screw the fact that my code won't let me get the hell out of here until I find that damn patrol. _

Cautiously stepping around the mutilated corpse beside me, I worked my way off the ledge. It was time to get a good look at the things that had attacked and eaten him, and tried to do the same to me, before more of them turned up.

Unfortunately, something – or some_one_ – had gotten to the bodies before I did. There wasn't much besides bones left. I sighed. "Just my luck. Damn." At least the skeletons confirmed what I had observed the night before; one male, one female, both different species. Jagged teeth marks lined the bones, but underneath, faint lines showed that at least some of the scars I had seen had been significant.

I straightened up and swore in Chozo a few times to ease my frustration. _Time to find the ship. I need another energy tank, repairs for most of my suit, and information. _

Easier said than done. My head started throbbing again within ten minutes, and the dizziness returned in full force. Stupid concussion. At least my energy tank had recharged slightly, enough to fix part of my gun. It still sparked and crackled ominously when I tried to use it, but it worked. Next time _anything _charged me, even if it was humanoid, I was going to shoot the hell out of it. I do _not _take well to being considered something's lunch. The cannibal freaks could just go chase down something else.

Of course, that could come back to bite me later – pun not intended – if they found the patrol I was searching for. I hate realizing that someone I'm looking for is already dead. Usually horribly. Sometimes my job sucks. That isn't _totally _the space pirates' fault, but I still blame them. Not like one more count against them means much at this point.

"Focus, Samus," I told myself sternly. "If you don't, you're gonna die." Does it make me unhinged, the fact that that thought actually steadied me? Or maybe it was just experience. It doesn't seem to matter where I go, someone or something is always trying to kill me. Just another day at the office, folks.

When an hour of walking got me absolutely nowhere, I started to wonder if maybe my navigation systems had been knocked offline as well. It was possible I was just going in circles. That could explain why I wasn't finding my ship, even though I was apparently going back the way I had come.

Then, right at the worst possible time, the all-too-familiar warning popped up. **Danger level rising. **

"Oh, _shit_," I groaned. "Could this day possibly get any worse?"

I should have known better than to say that. If you challenge the universe, it usually delivers. In this case, it delivered that damn black mist. The one that had gotten me lost in the first place.

Still swearing – not for any reason other than it felt good – I stopped in my tracks. No way was I walking back into it. I switched on my scan visor and locked onto the mist.

**Mind Fog. **

"Uh-huh," I muttered. "That doesn't really help."

**Fog is nonsentient and composed of tiny particles that impair judgment and intensify emotion. **

"Yeah, I got that. Anything _else?_"

**It is produced by the creature kzztasdtifosatsdgakzzt *static***

"Damn!" I yelled as loudly as I could. "_Now _what?"

**Scan visor nonfunctional. Probable cause: interference from nearby static. **

I glared at the mist. "You are _deliberately _trying to ruin my day, I just _know _it."

No response, of course, not that I had expected one. I eyed it for a moment. It wasn't moving – it just hung there. Waiting for me?

"Not falling for it." I turned and angled south, planning to make my way around the mist and resume my search. As I reached the top of a small hill, though, I realized it was far more widespread than I had thought, blocking my path.

Suddenly worried, I spun back the way I had come. No sign of it, not yet. I sprinted north, desperately hoping I could get around it that way.

No. It was there too, settled in a small canyon that I would have to cross.

"What the bloody _hell_?" I screamed at it. "_What the hell do you want?_"

Nothing. I suddenly felt very stupid. I was yelling at a _fog_.

Then I realized what it was doing. It was cutting me off from my ship. There was no way out.


End file.
